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W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 3

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Now it is a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. If you utterly decline to make do with what you can get, then somehow or other, you are very likely to get what

Now it is a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. If you utterly decline to make do with what you can get, then somehow or other, you are very likely to get what you want.

W. Somerset Maugham
Determination, Funny Things, Want
The Mixture as Before "The Treasure" (1940)

She loved three things — a joke, a glass of wine, and a handsome man.

W. Somerset Maugham
Wine, Men, Glasses
W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.134, Courier Corporation

You will find as you grow older that the first thing needful to make the world a tolerable place to live in is to recognize the inevitable selfishness of humanity. You demand unselfishness from others, which is a preposterous claim that they should sacrifice their desires to yours. Why should they? When you are reconciled to the fact that each is for himself in the world you will ask less from your fellows. They will not disappoint you, and you will look upon them more charitably. Men seek but one thing in life -- their pleasure.

W. Somerset Maugham
Sacrifice, Men, Things In Life

A dictator must fool all the people all the time and there's only one way to do that, he must also fool himself.

W. Somerset Maugham
People, Atheism, Way
W. Somerset Maugham (1939). “Christmas Holiday”

If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.

W. Somerset Maugham
Food, Breakfast, Want

It is bad enough to know the past; it would be intolerable to know the future.

W. Somerset Maugham
Past, Would Be, Enough

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled in them, and each time they come into contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded.

W. Somerset Maugham
Truth, Real, Youth
W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1614, eBookIt.com

I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me.

W. Somerset Maugham
Work, Life Is Short, Long Ago
"A Writer's Notebook (1941)". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1946.

The well dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Clothes, Well Dressed

It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Friendship, Time
W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them.

W. Somerset Maugham
Lonely, Heart, Together
W. Somerset Maugham (2006). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.113, Courier Corporation

The tragedy of love is not death or separation. How long do you think it would have been before one or other of them ceased to care? Oh, it is dreadfully bitter to look at a woman whom you have loved with all your heart and soul, so that you felt you could not bear to let her out of your sight, and realize that you would not mind if you never saw her again. The tragedy of love is indifference.

W. Somerset Maugham
Heart, Thinking, Love Is
W. Somerset Maugham (2015). “The Trembling of a Leaf: Stories of the South Sea Islands”, p.85, Xist Publishing

To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.

W. Somerset Maugham
Courage, Failure, Inspiration

A mother only does her children harm if she makes them the only concern of her life.

W. Somerset Maugham
Mother, Children, Doe
W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.175, Random House

If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Character, Passion

All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary-it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Matter, Story Writers

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Friendship, Children

When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.

W. Somerset Maugham
Kindness, People, Young
W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

Life isn't long enough for love and art.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Famous Love, Art
W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “The Moon and Sixpence (月亮與六便士)”, p.336, Hyweb Technology Co. Ltd.

We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Friendship
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Life, Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage ch. 71 (1915)

As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Relationship, Women
W. Somerset Maugham (2006). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.117, Courier Corporation

Imagination grows by exercise.

W. Somerset Maugham
Exercise, Imagination, Creative
"The Summing Up". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1938.

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

W. Somerset Maugham
Funny, Life, Happiness

There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type that most often writes about himself.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Men, Guilt
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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